Jared Dudley diagnosed with right MCL tear, is evaluating treatment options

Jared Dudley has suffered a right MCL tear, the Los Angeles Lakers announced on Sunday. Dudley missed Friday’s game with a right knee contusion, but further testing revealed a right MCL tear in addition to the right knee contusion. Dudley is still evaluating his treatment options, according to the team.

Dudley has been limited to 11 games with the Lakers this season in large part due to injury problems. At the beginning of the season, the 35-year-old forward missed 15 games because of a calf injury. He returned to the lineup on Feb. 18.

Dudley re-signed with the Lakers for the veteran’s minimum exception in December. His deal is guaranteed through the 2020-21 season.

While the severity of Dudley’s MCL tear has been laid out in explicit terms yet, one can assume that’s a full tear of the MCL because the team didn’t say it was a partial tear. If that’s the case, Dudley will more than likely be out for the remainder of the season.

For the Lakers, the good news is that they have good depth at the power forward position outside of Dudley with Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Markieff Morris, all of whom play the majority of their minutes at the 4.

The bad news (outside of the injury itself, of course) is that the deadline to apply for the disabled player exception was on March 3, meaning the Lakers won’t be granted any financial assistance to sign a player to replace Dudley. Granted, that money wouldn’t have moved the needle too much for them because A) Dudley is only making the veteran’s minimum and B) they’re a hard-capped team, but something is better than nothing.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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